2.1.8 install attempt on Windows says invalid root in registry key, plus erl crash dump

Hello,

i am totally new to this.

1. Question:

Trying to installing ejabberd on Windows XP (sp2) 32bit, the installation of ejabberd 2.1.8 finishes to the end.
But seconds from finishing a warning pops up saying "invalid root in registry key",
(caused by ejabberd\bin\manual64.vbs)

****manual64.vbs paste:

' Begin code for rewrite.vbs
' Force ejabberd service to be manual
' Version: 1.0

Option Explicit

Dim WSHShell, Key, Value

Set WSHShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Key = WSHShell.RegRead("HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Ericsson\Erlang\ErlSrv\1.1\ejabberd\InternalServiceName")
Value = "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\" & Key & "\Start"
WSHShell.RegWrite Value, 3, "REG_DWORD"

*****manual64.vbs paste end

'internalservicename' key's value gets set to "ejabberd01cc790109b7cb30", whatever that means.

What to do about this root issue?

2. Question:

Starting ejabberd manually from windows services control results in an erl crash dump,
partly quoted here:

Slogan: Kernel pid terminated (application_controller) ({application_start_failure,kernel,{shutdown,{kernel,start,[normal,[]]}}})
System version: Erlang (BEAM) emulator version 5.6.4 [smp:2] [async-threads:0]
Compiled: Tue Sep 2 19:03:58 2008

Erl is not installed separately so far, since nowhere it said it would be required.
Any idea what may be wrong?